Demand rises for memory-care services: Region sees growing need for dementia services

Memory-care communities are in high demand in Northern Colorado with seniors aging in place and living longer, and baby boomers starting to need services.

“We’re seeing an explosion of people moving to the area,” said Lynn Hayden-Ugarte, director of sales for Seven Lakes Memory Care in Loveland. “Oftentimes, they move their loved ones closer to them. … Or, they’re wanting to stay in the area where they’re currently living.”

Memory-care communities provide a homelike environment with nursing and other services for adults with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia — a diagnosis that has become more prevalent from a better understanding of the progressive, degenerative disease.

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“We’re doing a better job of recognizing and diagnosing it through testing,” Hayden-Ugarte said, citing a statistic that one in four people over the age of 80 are diagnosed with dementia. “In the last 20 years, we started to learn so much more about it. Every year, we’re getting more funding for research. Alzheimer’s is the only disease that there isn’t a known cause, there is no effective treatment, and there is not a cure.”

About 15 years ago, Hayden-Ugarte started seeing Northern Colorado skilled nursing and assisted living facilities establish separate wings for memory care, and standalone facilities came to the area about 10 years ago, she said, adding that with the surge of memory care communities, the need currently is being met and likely will be for the next five to 10 years.

The standalone facilities typically provide the layouts and furnishings of a home setting, unlike the institutional setting of a nursing facility, that is more conducive to those with dementia needing a familiar environment, Hayden-Ugarte said. The facilities, often secured to prevent residents from wandering and staffed with 24-hour nursing care, also provide programming and activities with the cues, directions and specialized, individualized care geared to those with dementia, she said. Staff are trained to work with those with dementia and help them with things like getting dressed, daily hygiene and eating meals, she said.

“Because it’s a regressive disease, you unlearn everything you learned in life. It makes decision-making difficult,” Hayden-Ugarte said.

Seven Lakes, a 48-bed, full-care assisted living facility that specializes in Alzheimer’s and dementia care since 2012, offers MBKonnections, a resident enrichment program that helps meet the residents’ physical, social, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and occupational needs, Hayden-Ugarte said. The program features fitness classes, social and family engagement activities, and structured activities to promote sensory stimulation and wellbeing, she said.

“It’s really important for people to get out and visit the different communities to see what they offer because it’s not one size fits all,” Hayden-Ugarte said.

Fort Collins-based Columbine Health Systems operates 11 assisted living and nursing care facilities in Fort Collins, Loveland and Windsor, three of which have wings for memory care and are constantly full, said Yvonne Myers, health systems director of Columbine Health Systems. The wings, which are secured, are designated for residents who wander and benefit from a smaller environment, she said.

The residents have individualized care plans based on their interests and level of dementia that include activities such as exercise, arts and crafts, cooking and music.

“It’s the same things we all like to do but offered in a safe environment and presented in a different way,” Myers said.

Men, however, can have a more difficult time getting into memory care units, especially in roommate situations where there are more women than men entering the facilities, Myers said.

McKee Medical Center in Loveland developed a program that helps patients with dementia coming to the hospital with other diagnoses maintain their functional abilities and avoid further decline, said Julie Roth-Carter, clinical nurse specialist at McKee. Staff tailors a plan of care for each patient after assessing the patient’s cognitive abilities and asking the family about their activity involvement and what triggers their anxiety and is calming for them, she said.

The idea of the plan, implemented April 1, is to “prevent agitated behavior and help them stay in the routines they have at home,” Roth-Carter said. “We try to mimic the routine they were in from home or whatever setting they were in.”

The plan includes four tool kits with appropriate items for each level of dementia from mild to severe, such as cards, fidget boards, squeegee balls, sorting activities and music.

“We’re trying to decrease anxiety and fear while they’re here with us,” Roth-Carter said.

Emily Demmler, occupational therapist at McKee, helped develop the dementia plans of care and identify the items for the kits.

“We realize we had an opportunity to improve care of patients with dementia,” Demmler said. “We have seen a decrease in agitated behavior and a quicker discharge.”

The WindSong family of companies uses the Montessori Inspired Lifestyle Approach to memory care communities, accredited by Dr. Cameron Camp, director of research and development at the Center for Applied Research in Dementia. He retooled a teaching method traditionally used on young children for Alzheimer’s patients to help them gain some of the skills they lost to the disease.

WindSong at Northridge in Greeley is the third memory care community worldwide to be accredited by Camp. WindSong communities also are in Fort Collins, WindSong at Rock Creek, and Salem, Ore.

“The Montessori approach to dementia care is all about an engaging and purposeful lifestyle,” said Stacey Flint, regional marketing director and Montessori trainer for the WindSong family of companies. “The Montessori approach is focused on what they can do, seeing opportunities and providing pathways for those opportunities.”

The approach identifies the tasks and skills the residents still can do, enabling, rather than further disabling them, while also identifying their interests and providing activities that meet those interests, such as cooking, socializing and community engagement, Flint said.

“We try to provide them with opportunities to actively engage in their lives again,” Flint said. “What we like to get at is the art of daily living. … We’re placing them in an environment that builds confidence.”

Larimer County has 10 facilities dedicated to memory care or that have a memory care wing, said Amber Franzel, lead ombudsman for the Office on Aging in Larimer County.

“Larimer County has one of the biggest populations of aging adults in the state,” Franzel said. “We expect to see more of a need for memory care but also for all of our aging services.”

Newer memory care facilities likely will be private pay, based on business decisions, said Heather O’Hayre, deputy director of the Larimer County Department of Human Services, adding that Medicaid and Medicare claims are cumbersome for the providers.

“Unfortunately for adults who can’t pay, from a business perspective, they are able to fill those beds without taking Medicaid,” O’Hayre said.

Most of the memory care units recently built in Northern Colorado also have been private pay, Myers said. The two Alzheimer’s nursing skill facilities that Columbine Health Systems operates take Medicare and Medicaid, but the assisted living facility with a memory care wing is private pay, she said.

“The greatest need we have is for centers that have staff who are trained and understand how to take care of this kind of patient. It’s a unique subset of aging,” Myers said. “Buildings are not enough. Right now, we need people to take care of them. … It can be hard work to repeat the same thing 10 times a day. … It takes a special person and training with your staff. It’s not a fun disease for sure.”